Creating the workload cluster

Generating the cluster.yaml

The clusterctl generate cluster command returns a YAML template for creating a workload cluster. It generates a YAML file named my-cluster.yaml with a predefined list of Cluster API objects (Cluster , Machines , MachineDeployments , etc.) to be deployed in the current namespace.

shell

clusterctl generate cluster my-cluster --kubernetes-version v1.35.4 --control-plane-machine-count=3 --worker-machine-count=3 > my-cluster.yaml

note

With the --target-namespace flag, you can specify a different target namespace.

Run the clusterctl generate cluster --help command for more information.

note

Please note that ready-to-use Kubernetes configurations, production-ready node images, kubeadm configuration, cluster add-ons like CNI, and similar services need to be separately prepared or acquired to ensure a comprehensive and secure Kubernetes deployment. This is where Syself Autopilot comes into play, taking on these challenges to offer you a seamless, worry-free Kubernetes experience. Feel free to contact us via e-mail: [email protected].

Applying the workload cluster

The following command applies the configuration of the workload cluster:

shell

kubectl apply -f my-cluster.yaml

Accessing the workload cluster

The cluster will now start provisioning. You can check status with:

shell

kubectl get cluster

You can also view the cluster and its resources at a glance by running:

shell

clusterctl describe cluster my-cluster

To verify the first control plane is up, use the following command:

shell

kubectl get kubeadmcontrolplane

note

The control plane won’t be ready until we install a CNI in the next step.

After the first control plane node is up and running, we can retrieve the kubeconfig of the workload cluster with:

shell

export CAPH_WORKER_CLUSTER_KUBECONFIG=/tmp/workload-kubeconfig clusterctl get kubeconfig my-cluster > $CAPH_WORKER_CLUSTER_KUBECONFIG

Deploying the CNI solution

Cilium is used as a CNI solution in this guide. The following command deploys it to your cluster:

The file templates/cilium/values.yaml is a repo-provided Helm values file in this repository. Before running the command, make sure this file exists at that path in your working environment (for example, by using it from a local checkout of this repo or copying it from templates/cilium/values.yaml into your working directory setup).

shell

helm repo add cilium https://helm.cilium.io/ KUBECONFIG=$CAPH_WORKER_CLUSTER_KUBECONFIG helm upgrade --install cilium cilium/cilium \ --namespace kube-system \ -f templates/cilium/values.yaml

You can, of course, also install an alternative CNI, e.g., calico.

Deploy the CCM

The CCM (Cloud Controller Manager) runs in the workload cluster and integrates Kubernetes with the Hetzner APIs. In practice, it is responsible for tasks such as setting the ProviderID on nodes and managing load balancers.

You need to install a CCM in this flow so the workload cluster can properly interact with Hetzner infrastructure.

Deploy Syself Cloud Controller Manager

The following make command will install the Syself CCM in your workload cluster:

make install-ccm-in-wl-cluster

For upstream HCloud CCM instructions and bare-metal ProviderID format details, see Baremetal Docs

Deploying the CSI (optional)

shell

cat << EOF > csi-values.yaml controller: hcloudToken: existingSecret: name: hetzner key: hcloud storageClasses: - name: hcloud-volumes defaultStorageClass: true reclaimPolicy: Retain EOF KUBECONFIG=$CAPH_WORKER_CLUSTER_KUBECONFIG helm upgrade --install csi hcloud/hcloud-csi \ --namespace kube-system -f csi-values.yaml

If you want to continue with the next step and move the Cluster API components to your workload cluster (so it becomes the new management cluster), do not run the cleanup command.

Clean Up (optional)

If you want to stop here, delete the workload cluster and remove all of the components by using:

shell

kubectl delete cluster my-cluster

IMPORTANT: In order to ensure a proper clean-up of your infrastructure, you must always delete the cluster object. Deleting the entire cluster template with the kubectl delete -f my-cluster.yaml command might lead to pending resources that have to be cleaned up manually.

Delete management cluster with the following command:

shell

kind delete cluster